I've just been slightly bowled over, rather offended, and totally disappointed by the thread on this site about MSE and saynoto0870. The ideas I'm in anyones pocket are rude and ignorant, the idea i want an appointment with Ofcom laughable.   So let me clear a few things up here and now!  I shall try to ignore the insults in the thread

1. Whose pocket am I in?

My own pocket is big enough thank you very much.  Admittedly I have played the game on this.  When I met with Watchdog in June to express my disgust at its 0870 number I did it behind closed doors, stamps my feet and got in a rather nasty spat, but yes i didnt do it publically i doubted it would've done me or anyone else any good.  I recently met the new editor whos' stopped 0870 numbers (nothing to do with me in the end) and thanked him for it.  As for Vine (my other BBC outlet) I've publically slated 0870s on there too.

I neither work for the BBC nor ITV.  Though I do have a contract for a series with ITV.  However that is one of my employers - the Guardian, the BBC, Moneywise, Bella, my publisher are others.  The majority of my earnings however comes from my site so I don't need to answer to others - I am very lucky to be able to follow totally my own view with only legal barriers to stop me!

2. Why did i stop the campaign

Because it was due to cost me £6,000 with the PR and work I was planning, and then Ofcom announced a consultation so i preferred to wait and see what happened?

3. Why have I gone cold on 0870

I haven't U-turned, I haven't softened. I haven't changed my view.  My saynoto0870 article stiands

4. Why have I been soft on the Ofcom consultation

Here I think some of the points do have merit.  So let me be completely honest with you.  For the last 15 weeks I've been filming my new series.  I've hardly been in my office and not had a day off (im not looking for sympathy just explaining).  When the consultation came out rather than digging into it myself I asked one of my researchers to do a summary for me - which was done adequately, but it was just a summary and not an opinion piece, only I do those.  

I have lost touch with the issue slightly, and after recent PM's have it on my list of things to do.  When I get my other issues out of the way I hope to spend some time on it personally.  This Firday is my plan (though its not easy at the moment) and then put a note in the tip following it up.  

I will ignore some of the nasty comments that were in the other post.  I'm happy to use this thread to listen to your comments on the consultation document and i give you my word to read it and take note then act as is appropriate.

Martin Lewis
MoneySavingExpert.com

Martin

I would like to say thank you for your post earlier tonight, which should have done something to clarify things for most members here.

Despite other matters, I hope you will not be too surprised by support here.

I hope that this thread will be conducted in a more positive manner after this promising start, and achieve useful feedback for all.

Andy

MSE_Martin wrote on Nov 15^th, 2005 at 11:30pm:

...I'm happy to use this thread to listen to your comments on the consultation document and i give you my word to read it and take note then act as is appropriate.

Hi Martin.

Thanks for that.

Just somethings I feel could be mentioned:-

• The deadline is 6th December (for those that are not already aware). This wasn't unfortunately mentioned.
  
• Daniel has setup more information on these two consultations, http://www.saynoto0870.com/consultation/.  This area is unbiased and provides us consumers with information ofcom either forgot to mention or have tried not to mention it.  It also includes a coversheet and response form (in one) for ease of help for those wanting to comment on ofcoms proposals.
  
• There is another consultation called, "Providing consumers with improved information about Number Translation Services (NTS) and Premium Rate Services (PRS)", and hardly anyone has responded to that.  It was released at the same time as the NTS way forward consultation and therefore has the same deadline.  The main purpose of this other consultation is that ofcom propose to make the teleco's publish the cost of NGN's in a more prominent position and highlight whether NGN's are included or not within any packages.  Right now most teleco's hide the cost of NGN's.  This includes the biggest company, BT, that have the cost of these numbers hidden away on their website so unless you know where to look you wouldn't find it and therefore not know how much the call is actually costing you.  Mobile companies seem to go out of their way to hide the cost of these numbers possibly due to them costing upto 40p/min.
  
• Ofcom's current proposals is to remove revenue sharing from 0870 this would mean that a call to 0845 is likely to cost more than an 0870 which I believe is likely to confuse even more consumers.
  
• Ofcom have said they have no plans on doing anything on 0844 numbers.  This basically means that most companies are likely to migrate over to 0844 numbers and choose a range costing 5p/min all the time.  This would mean that although during the weekday daytime the call will be about 2p/min cheaper, during the evening & weekends it will actually cost us more - from about 1p/min for 0870 to 5p/min for 0844.  This is what has happened to those GP surgeries that were using 0870, they've now moved to 0844 which is a lot more expensive during the evening&weekend.  Of course, these prices are only from a BT landline.  Costs from other landline providers, payphones, or mobiles are likely to cost more.
  
• Ideally, any company wanting to keep their revenue share should migrate to 09x.  This would give us consumers more knowledge and safeguards.  Things like call queuing are prohibited.  The cost of the call has to clearly be announced, etc.  That is why 09x numbers have these extra rules.  Right now 08x numbers have no such rules or guidelines and we get charged for being kept in a queue which is sometimes in excess of 20mins from what I read in the newspapers, etc.
  
• Due to the revenue sharing and the way NTS works, effective competition isn't really possible and hence reason why these calls are so much more expensive compared to calls to geographicals.  As we all know, due to effective competition, calls to geographicals are a lot cheaper now than they were and we even having companies giving us inclusive mins for a low cost or even free.  Most teleco's (except o2 contract I think) actually don't include calls to NGN's.
  
• I personally believe government departments should stop using these numbers as even for an 0845 number revenue sharing is still possible and in fact one police force admits to receiving revenue from people calling them via their 0845 number (this was obtained via an FOI).  Ofcom recommends (but doesn't enforce anything) that government bodies at the very least should display a geographical alternative.  This would solve the problem of receiving calls from abroad or those that are ringing from a payphone or mobile.

Thanks again and I hope some of the above information you would consider mentioning especially the two consultation deadlines and they can get more information from http://www.saynoto0870.com/consultation/.

Thanks.

Good points, bbb_uk,

and also please Martin will you include the consultation concerning the new emergency services number (police enquiries etc.) since it appears that this is an intention to eventually introduce a similar Disguised Premium number for police and emergency service enquiries.

I am extremely glad to hear that you have not gone cold on the scams with 0870 and other NGNs and I hope you do feel that this issue is sufficiently important that you, like the rest of us, will make the sacrifice of your valuable time to publicise these consultations and attempt to encourage as many Citizen Consumers as possible to respond to these three current consultations.